V-strut for Skeletal bracket

[NaughtyBits]

Very Nice, Nudge.

Just picked up the 'A' tilt last week - thanks again, great job on them.

[Nudge]

All moulded up and ready to go!

Don't know when they will get poured and I still don't know what the cost will be.
I have 10 transom brackets and 3 A brackets.

What I'm doing is kiddies play... that is a car hoist behind the prop! It is 1.2m (4 foot) in dia. and even that is a small one to them!!

[Charles uk]

That's going to hit your water pump housing!

[Nudge]

That's going to hit your water pump housing!

I don't think the water pump housing is the problem..... it's the spark plug the sticks out too far!

[Nudge]

I have got 4 "A's" cast along with 1 transom bracket.
We only cast one of the brackets because we didn't have the correct core stock.
The core needs to be 1 1/8" and we only 1" in stock. The bracket came out Ok but still needed quite a bit of work.
If it had the correct core you may be able to finish it off with only a grinder and a "Dremel". Well ok! You will also need to drill and tap the two holes to hold the cap on.

I've spent about an hour and cleaned up one of the "A's" just to show you how it is done! This one is silicon bronze
The flash around the edges is quite thin and can be easily removed with a grinder with a sander pad.
From this:

To this:

This is what the transom bracket looks like:

If the core was the correct size most of the "tube" wouldn't be there.

[Charles uk]

Nudge we're have a discussion about whether we should change the title of this thread to "Pimp up your Seagull" & your screen name to "King of Bling"!

Your putting us all to shame!

Very impressive.

[Oyster 49]

Yes, some great work going on here

[Nudge]

I finally got the transom and A brackets cast!
In the end I had to buy an entire box of core blanks 1 1/8" core is not that common. If it wasn't for the core these would have been cast over a month ago. Now I have a box of cores if we need any more it should take anywhere near the time to get them done!

I will post up some pics of them in the morning (it's cold and dark outside and the bits are in my van).

[Hugz]

Excellent news. Looking forward to some delightful hours fettling. I don't quite understand the process with the core blanks. I'm assuming they are of a material that holds their form and is a higher melting temperature than the bronze yet doesn't fuse with the metal, basially a solid piece of 1 1/8" round casting sand rod? Am i close?

[Rob Ripley]

I was looking at one of my broken alloy struts and noticed that there is a 25 x 6 half threaded rod with a convenient slot in the end. I assume that the casting was drilled and tapped for the pieces to be fitted. I guess it makes sense as that point takes the most stress and a brass rod would be stronger than a small alloy part. I scratched it with some abrasive to clean off the paint, tried to remove the rod but after 65+ years it's stuck.

[Nudge]

Heat it up a bit to get the aluminium to expand. the pin will be held in with an oxide layer. once the oxide layer is cracked it should come out.

Some pix of the clamp bracket.

There is 10 of these up for grabs
Just been poured.... it is always like Christmas at this point, what have we got inside!

Looks good so far!

The core blank that I have been waiting for is the darker brown sand where the drive tube would go, by getting the correct size there will be very little clean up required when it comes to the hole. It could probably be done with a bobbin sander on a Dremel.

[Hugz]

Rob, with the brass skeletal bracket one can stretch it open after removing the thrust block bolt. With the std bracket you can't do this and need to unscrew those studs. Incidentally those studs come in two different sizes. You can compress that V but run the risk of snapping it.

[Hugz]

Looking good Nudge. I like the concave on the tail. Better than original!! (or is it originally like that?). Never seen an original tail on these come to think of it.

[Nudge]

And a couple more pix

[Nudge]

I think the tail is ground on the Ali ones to make them fit.
These may need a little clean up round the edges but shouldn't be too bad.